Greg Little is not a lightning rod for the Browns. He is the entire storm of thunder, hail, wind, rain and lightning that finds the lightning rod.

Three days after Coach Pat Shurmur proclaimed, "We can't play a guy that's going to drop footballs," Little dropped a football with the Browns down 10 points late fourth quarter Thursday night.

Brandon Weeden's pass on third-and-14 from the Ravens' 34 with 4 minutes, 38 seconds to play went through Little's hands on the goal line. Phil Dawson kicked a 52-yard field goal on the next play to cut Baltimore's lead to 23-16. Kicking a field goal at that point forced the Browns to go for a touchdown on fourth down from the Ravens' 33 with 10 seconds left and the Browns down by the same score.

Advertisement

Little had to bend backward to track the ball and extend his arms to the fullest to make the play. It was not a hit-him between-the-numbers drop, as Little has bungled in the past, but he offered no excuses Friday back in the locker room in Berea.

"I just know that in order to be a great receiver and in order to be just great you have to make a great play and that would have been a great play that people would always remember and tell their kids about," Little said. "You just remember where you were when a play like that was made.

"It could have ignited our defense. We would have needed only a field goal at the end or maybe we would have stayed aggressive and gone for the touchdown to win it."

The Ravens made two first downs and forced the Browns to use all three timeouts after Dawson's third field goal of the game. By the time the Browns got the ball on their 10, only 1:05 remained.

Weeden moved downfield quickly with passes to Jordan Norwood, and Benjamin Watson. His only pass intended for Little on the drive until the final play was incomplete down the right side.

A penalty on the Ravens' Paul Kruger gave the Browns one more chance from the Baltimore 18 with 2 seconds left. Little would have needed a fireman's ladder to each the pass that sailed high over his head.

Shurmur is trying to strike the delicate balance of being firm with Little and other young players making mistakes without stomping the heart out of them.

Little was targeted 10 times and caught four passes Thursday. Unofficially, he dropped two passes. The other four were uncatchable.

Little became Weeden's main target because Mohamed Massaquoi missed the game with a hamstring injury.

"We had a guy in St. Louis, Brandon Gibson," said Shurmur, the Rams' offensive coordinator in 2009 and 2010. "He's doing a good job for them now. He was forced to play early. He had a little bit of a problem with (drops) then. Now it's not a problem. It happens. And you hope that's the case in Greg's case.

"Here's what happens. Everybody that's on our roster, you work with them and you inspire them to improve. And then you folks sit here and give praise and assign blame."

Gibson was a sixth-round choice by the Eagles in 2009. He played one game and didn't make a catch. He was traded to St. Louis on Oct. 20 of his rookie year. Through last Sunday, he has 131 catches in 39 career games with the Rams.

Little spends extra time after practice catching passes from the JUGGS machine. He also catches passes standing behind a PVC stand used to simulate a defender between the quarterback and receiver. He says he also has to spend more time with his quarterback.

"To me, it's just getting reps with Brandon, running routes with him and just constantly talking about how I'm going to run things, where he's going to throw the ball, if the DBs not looking, throw it right at the back of his head and me having to make a great play," Little said. "Just sitting down with him and going through clips of film and just talking. I think once we continue that we will develop our relationship even more."